Kuniouchi
by Aimlessly Unknown
Summary: This is the way they fall. genfic.


_Summary: _This is the way they fall. genfic. kuniouchi.

* * *

Tenten struggles to the epicenter of where it all started. The debris scattered all over the ground as random weapons fall around the crater where Neji's Kaiten has shattered enemy forces. She stumbles along the path, dragging her feet behind her as her vision swims. Lee has disappeared, somewhere in the haze of her mind calls, he isn't here, where he should be. His body is no longer lying against the tree where he collapsed – there is no blood where there is no body. And she would almost be glad that she doesn't have to see his lazy grin and reddish skin as his eyes dull and his heart stops beating if she noticed.

She is far too busy staring at Neji and his broken body in the center of the Kaiten's path. She is too busy staring at a halo of brown hair and the hand that has fallen, limp and pale, extended out to her like he's calling for her to pull him from Death's shade. And oh how she wishes she was Sakura.

The pain in her stomach is growing, like a tiger that snaps its head awake and roars as loud as possible. She falls again, mere feet away from Neji, into the basin and rolls, ignoring the way the kunai in her stomach agitates her wound, the way she can feel it puncturing her deeper until blood is all she can see.

Tenten reaches for Neji, trying to press her palm to his and assure his dead body that she's right behind him. That the mercenaries that killed him and Lee are dead and gone and burning in hell and she did it all by herself; she wants him to rest in peace.

And there, in the middle of the field, Tenten fades away; her hand mere centimeters from Neji's.

* * *

Sakura goes as innocuously as possible for Godaime's apprentice and Shichidaime's _sister_ can. It is not a great battle that takes her from the world – nor is it old age. It is a disease. It is the lump of cells building inside of her that eventually stills her heart and breath and takes her. She knew it was there. She felt it grow.

She told no one.

Not Naruto, nor Ino, nor Sasuke, nor Hinata, not even Tsunade; instead she smiled and said she just felt a bit tired, let her rest and she'll be fine. Right as rain, even.

It occurs in the middle of her hospital shift – she can't move, she can't breathe, and she feels so weak that it's hard to believe she broke a mountain weeks before. Nurses buzz around her, smiling and happy; but only one stops and asks if she's ready.

The girl has the most beautiful face Sakura has ever seen – with bright eyes and bones pressing against flesh. Her smile is large and Sasuke-like in its intensity.

The girl extends a hand, tapered and thin, and lights up like the sun, "_ Are you ready Sakura-san_?_ It doesn't hurt. I promise._"

And people stop and stare and scream at the crumpled body of Haruno Sakura, who is dead and gone in the middle of the hospital floor.

She is still smiling.

* * *

Hinata is warm and old when she dies. She is wrapped in her bed sheets and withered to the point where she is hardly the young beauty she once was. Her eyes are dulled and baggy and when she smiles her face sags; and it looks like she's frowning. She twists a hand into the sheets and pulls them tighter against her shaking body. She looks up at the ceiling and is just starting to give up the ghost when the door opens. It is a slow creak, and the padding of feet, that make her turn her head to get a final glimpse at her last visitor.

It is Naruto.

It is his smiling, blue-eyed, _twenty year old_ face staring down at her. He hasn't aged a moment and she mentally damns the Kyuubi for condemning Naruto to that life. To a life of watching people die. Her husband of years brushes a smooth hand on her face and kisses her forehead, whispering words of love and how he won't find another like her.

She smiles up at him and says she loves him.

She hopes there is no afterlife, because it wouldn't be much of a Heaven without Naruto.

Hinata dies clutching Naruto's hand, the feeling of his tears on her skin, and the warmth of his breath on her cheek.

* * *

It is Ino that goes out a blaze of glory. She is thirty years old and feeling far older when Iwa-nin attack in the name of a woman named Kushina. They blame Konoha for the death of a woman Ino has never heard of.

The attack has come when they are least prepared, when Naruto has all but succeeded in another suicide attempt, the Kyuubi's chakra the only thing keeping him breathing. Hinata is next to him – defending his vulnerable body and the demonic chakra around it. Ino herself is still recovering from the loss of Sakura and Tenten and Konoha is at its absolute worst.

They are crumbling at the seams.

So Ino rushes off in the defense of her homeland and wonders if it's ever enough.

She is in the middle of taking over the mind of the leader when she sees an opportunity. The main offense is near her, waiting for the attack that won't come because Konoha _isn't ready_ and Ino seizes her chance. She remembers back to when her Father told her about the final Yamanaka move, the only one she is _never_ to use. Unless she absolutely – no other option – has to.

And now she does. She forms seals quickly and when the last of her chakra has molded she releases all of it in a burst of fire. The explosions is so big it takes out half the enemy forces in a single shot – including Iwa's main assailants. She calls it her Suicide Mind (1). The last vestiges of Ino's mind are scattered to the wind as Iwa calls a retreat, never to return.

ANBU find Ino's body – burned and broken – feet away from the blast. Her eyes are rolled all the way back into her head and her body is sprawled out like a mother welcoming a child home or an angel praising the one that has taken everything.

Ino is burned beyond recognition and there's nearly nothing left of her.

And no one is left to trace her name upon the cenotaph because no one knows who she is.

Yamanaka Ino is dubbed KIA and no one knows she's a hero.

* * *

(1) – Suicide Mind is a technique I made up. It can only be performed by a Yamanaka who has mastered the Shintenshin no Jutsu – it entails the Yamanaka to build up all of their victim's chakra and release it in one explosive blast. It helps and increases damage when the Yamanaka in question is a fire and or lightening type. This is a suicide technique as the victim's body is torn and burned to shreds – leaving the same to occur on the Yamanaka's body.

It is a secret Yamanaka Clan technique and is unknown to the populous of Konoha.

Regular: This is a new style I tried and I'm hoping it was good, so let me know please!

Thanks and reviewing makes me happy!

_Aimlessly Unknown_.


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